Pastor Bell's Words To Live By

After Elijah recovered from his period of depression (1Kings 19:1-10) the Lord sent him to anoint and appoint. He was sufficiently recovered to go and do God’s bidding again. The bible state that as he passed by a field he saw a young man ploughing with twelve cows. He threw his mantle (cloak) over him indicating that he was to be the next major prophet in Israel. Imagine that, Elisha was going about his business looking after cattle when the prophet of the Lord came by and chose him. How would you react? Would you drop what you are doing and just go? Or would you sort out the issue you have before you leave?  It would appear that Elisha did the latter. He told Elijah that he would go and bid his parents goodbye v.20, sort out his finances, the twelve cows he looked after and celebrate being chosen with his friends.

For us today we must always keep our feet on the ground when God ‘comes’ calling. Elisha gives us a model that is still appropriate in our fast paced 21^st century lifestyle. On receiving the call to go, Elisha went and notified his parents. He honoured his parents because he knew that this was the only commandment that has a blessing attached to it (Deut. 5:16). He then had a massive feast for his village since twelve cows would feed more than a thousand people and finally he used his tools, the ploughs that earned his living, as fuel to cook the meat. Elisha did not burn his bridges he merely closed one chapter of his life so that he could open another. To follow the Lord wholeheartedly we too need to learn to close the current chapter properly so that we can move on. Sometimes the past is so current that we fail to learn from it and move on. Although it may appear that Elisha just upped and went after Elijah it must have been months before he was able to go. When he finally became a full-time prophet he was able to perform many more recorded miracles than his mentor. So today who is your mentor, whose mantle are you wearing and who is speaking into your spiritual life?  Read 1Kings 19:19-21.